CHENNAI: Even as Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam has stated an all-party delegation would soon fly to Delhi to meet the Prime Minister in order to urge him to form the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) within the six weeks period mandated by the Supreme Court, opposition parties on Tuesday were up in arms against the alleged inaction of Union Government.
“We will take an all-party delegation soon to Delhi,” Panneerselvam said here on Tuesday during an event.
When questioned about Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement that he could not give assurance on the formation of the CMB, he pointed out that the Supreme Court had ordered formation of the bodies within six weeks.
Meanwhile, DMK working president and Leader of Opposition MK Stalin, in his return from Malaysia, said the reticent approach of the Prime Minister, who visited Chennai on Saturday, was condemnable. He did not spare Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping and Water Resources Management Nitin Gadkari.
“It is condemnable that the Prime Minister had remained reticent when he visited Tamil Nadu and also condemnable is the statement of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari that he cannot give any guarantee to form the Cauvery Management Board within the deadline,” Stalin frowned in a tweet.
PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss rued that both Congress and BJP had been betraying Tamil Nadu as far as the Cauvery water sharing row was concerned.
“Even now, the Centre seems to be guided by the ensuing Assembly polls in Karnataka and victory in the elections, but not the duty and responsibility of rendering justice to Tamil Nadu,” he said in a statement.
Ramadoss urged Tamil Nadu government to take an all-party delegation led by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to New Delhi immediately and stay back in Delhi to exert pressure on the Centre until CMB was formed and all political parties should support such an effort, he urged.
Condemning the statement of Nitin Gadkari and silence observed by Prime Minister when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister made a demand during a function in Chennai, State secretary of the CPM K Balakrishnan suggested that contempt of court proceedings be initiated against both of them for refusing to implement the apex court order.
R Mutharasan, State secretary, CPI, blamed the Centre for acting with a narrow political aim of extracting mileage in the ensuing Assembly polls in Karnataka.